Future of Australia’s naval shipbuilding industry

At the dissolution of the Senate and the House of Representatives on 9 May 2016 for a general election on 2 July 2016, the parliamentary committees of the 44th Parliament ceased to exist. Therefore inquiries that were not completed have lapsed and submissions cannot be received. However, information about the inquiries is still available on this website.

On 11 October 2016, the Senate agreed to the committee's recommendation that this inquiry be re-adopted in the 45th Parliament. Information about the re-adopted inquiry is available here.

This is an archived webpage that is no longer updated.

On 25 June 2014 the Senate referred an inquiry into the future sustainability of Australia’s strategically vital naval shipbuilding industry to the Senate Economics References Committee for inquiry and report by 1 July 2015.

On 10 July 2014, as part of its broader inquiry into Australia's naval shipbuilding industry, the committee resolved to inquire into the tender process for the Royal Australian Navy's (RAN) new supply ships as its first order of business. The committee reported on this matter on 27 August 2014.

On 25 September 2014, the committee resolved to inquire into recent developments related to the acquisition of Australia's future submarines. The committee reported on this part of the inquiry on 17 November 2014.

Therefore, the committee has tabled:

Part I - the tender process for the new supply ships, tabled on 27 August 2014;

Part II - the future submarines, tabled on 17 November 2014;

Part III - long-term planning, tabled on 1 July 2015.

The committee is due to table its final report on the broader term of reference - the future of Australia's shipbuilding industry - by 1 July 2015, with submissions having closed on 1 December 2014. On 24 June 2015, the Senate granted an extension to the committee to report by 28 August 2015. On 7 September 2015, the Senate granted the committee a further extension to report by 26 February 2016.

On 22 February 2016, the Committee was granted a further extension to report by 30 June 2016.